THE WORD
2 Chr 24,17-25 / Mt 6,24-34
Jesus said to his disciples, “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more important than they?
“Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about the clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the eld, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
“So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”
IN OTHER WORDS
More Than Many Sparrows, a book by Father Leo Trese, 1958. Lilies of the Field, a 1963 movie starring Sidney Poiter, Best Actor at the Oscars that year. I rst read and saw them in 1963 when, as a high school graduate, I entered Christ the King Mission Seminary in Quezon City. By the grace of God I am now just over forty years in the SVD missionary priesthood, living in the same place,
reflecting on the Gospel text from where both Leo Trese and the lm took their titles. This is Providence: God’s hand guiding me to consider certain things at certain points in my life.
Gratitude immediately comes to mind and heart. Thank You, Lord, for the gift of life, family, and friendship. For the gift of education and vocation. For your constant love despite my many and repeated sins/ failures. Thank You for your blessings. Let my gratitude spill into faith and hope – that even when skies are gray and days are lonely, in the darkest of my nights when I feel abandoned and alone, You are still there, loving me, providing for me. Help me convert my gratitude into graciousness that I share with others in what I do, in who I am.
While I must look to the future and plan for it, teach me to live Today. Now is when You come.
Here is where You are. As poet R.S. Thomas says, “Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.”
Thank you for loving me More Than Many Sparrows. For clothing me even better than you do the Lilies of the Field.
- Fr. Roderick C. Salazar, SVD | CKMS, QC
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
